<p>This study investigated how undergraduate students comprehend misleading graphs published on public platforms such as news media and government websites. Nineteen students enrolled in a Quantitative Reasoning course participated in the study and interpreted four graphs, two of which were misleading. For each graph, the participants responded to three questions assessing their ability to read the data, read between and beyond the data. The participants provided written justifications of their responses to these three questions in order for the research team to understand how they reason mathematically when they are exposed to misleading graphs, and what differences exist between the mathematical reasoning of an individual who could successfully identify the inconsistencies present in a graph compared to someone who failed to do so. Students performed well reading data from graphs but struggled identifying relationships and making predictions from the misleading line graph. Analysis of students’ written responses to the misleading line graph revealed two distinct mathematical reasoning strategies: students who successfully identified its misleading elements relied more on numerical thinking, while those who did not relied primarily on the visual shape of the graph. Further, despite demonstrating mathematical competence, only two students spontaneously questioned the intent or credibility of misleading visualizations. Findings of the study suggest that mathematics teachers (i) encourage students to carefully consider the data present in graphs instead of being influenced by their shape, and (ii) cultivate critical questioning dispositions along with graph comprehension skills.</p>